Boeing 787 battery cert tests completed

ZA272 lifts off from Paine Field for today's battery cert demo flight (Boeing)

Right now Boeing and the FAA are packaging up information from today’s 1 hour 51 min flight of ZA272, also known as Line Number 86, which completed the final certification test of the new battery system. The flight, which began from Paine Field, Everett, at 10.39 am began with a climb to 35,000 ft where altitude was maintained for around 8 mins before a further climb to 43,000 ft. This high altitude was held steady for 20 minutes while the aircraft flew south along the coast of Washington and northern Oregon before turning north. At 11.30 am, some 50 mins into the flight, the crew descended rapidly from 43,000 ft – leveling off at 10,000 ft after some 8 minutes. This low to medium altitude was maintained for the remainder of the flight which ended with a landing at Everett at 12.28 pm.

Now, assuming nothing needs to be retested, all eyes are on the FAA and JCAB to see when the fix will be formally approved and the AD conditions satisfied. The approval notice will signal the clearance of Boeing’s service bulletin which details the fix, and which permits the beginning of aircraft modifications in sites around the world.

The pioneer years of aviation included both successful and misguided efforts to make the number of safe landings approximate to the number of takeoffs. Here are some notable examples on both sides of that record.